Las Vegas NowCourt rejects Nev. appeal of death penalty case
Associated Press - May 26, 2009 7:35 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from Nevada prosecutors seeking the death penalty for a Fallon man convicted of killing a Reno cabbie.
The high court rejected the appeal without comment on Tuesday.
The ruling favors Shawn Harte, convicted of first-degree murder in the October 1997 robbery and shooting death of John Castro Jr.
Prosecutors were seeking to overturn a Nevada Supreme Court ruling that said Harte's robbery of $89 could not be used as an aggravating circumstance to seek the death penalty because it had already been used to seek his murder conviction.
The state court's ruling was in line with a 2004 decision that barred the dual use of evidence of torture in capital cases.
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